Angels Make a Real Splash

Angel pitcher Chuck Finley and opening-day assignments in Anaheim have mixed about as well as Michael Ovitz and the Walt Disney Co.--the two haven’t exactly been on the best of terms over the years.

But Wednesday night’s performance against the New York Yankees should go a long way toward patching things up. Finley shut out one of baseball’s most potent lineups for five innings, and the Angels led the Yankees, 4-1, after seven innings before 43,311 in Edison Field as this edition went to press.

Conditions were hardly ideal for the first regular-season game in the remodeled stadium. After a 56-minute rain delay, play was started with so many huge puddles in the outfield that center fielders Jim Edmonds (Anaheim) and Bernie Williams (New York) could have exchanged their spikes for waders.

Finley and Yankee starter Andy Pettitte went to the tongue depressor more often than the rosin bag, forking out mud from their shoes at least once an inning, and the soggy conditions made control difficult--Finley walked six in seven innings and Pettitte walked three in six innings.

But Finley was superb otherwise, spotting his fastball on the corners and mixing in a vicious forkball for seven strikeouts, in stark contrast to his previous opening-day starts.

Finley entered Wednesday’s game with a 1-2 record and 8.36 earned-run average in three previous opening-day starts, including that 1996 debacle, when the veteran left-hander was ripped for eight runs on eight hits in 2 2/3 innings of a 15-9 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

But the Yankees went hitless in the first three innings Wednesday night, and Matt Walbeck, the new Angel catcher, helped snuff out a potential uprising in the second when he threw out both Chili Davis and Chad Curtis trying to steal second.

New York threatened in the fourth when Paul O’Neill and Williams opened with singles, but Finley struck out Tino Martinez and Davis on nasty forkballs and got Curtis to ground to third.

The Yankees scored in the sixth, but new Angel second baseman Norberto Martin prevented further damage when, with runners on first and third and no outs, he made a lunging grab of Davis’ shot up the middle.

Martin, from the ground, flipped to shortstop Gary DiSarcina, who made a 360-degree turn and fired to first for the double play.

Three Angel newcomers sparked a fourth-inning rally, which began with Cecil Fielder’s single to left and Martin’s one-out double past diving first baseman Martinez, which put runners on second and third.

Walbeck lined a ball toward the gap in left-center, where Williams, after lunging in an attempt to stop the ball, splashed onto the wet turf like a kid diving on a Slip ‘N’ Slide.

The ball went to the wall for a two-run triple, and Walbeck scored on DiSarcina’s double down the left-field line. Darin Erstad then singled to right, scoring DiSarcina for a 4-0 lead. The inning ended when Edmonds lined to first for a double play.

That the Yankees and Angels even got Wednesday night’s game in seemed a remarkable achievement. Intermittent showers throughout the afternoon drenched the outfield, which Manager Terry Collins said was “in bad shape--there’s lots of standing water out there.”

That was some three hours before the scheduled 7:35 p.m. start, and a few hours after the Angels hired two helicopter pilots, who spent part of the afternoon hovering over Edison Field in an attempt to blow-dry the turf.

Batting practice and infield practice were canceled, but Collins wasn’t discouraged. “It’s opening day in April,” he said. “It’s supposed to be like this.”

In Cleveland, yes. In Boston, yes. In New York, yes. In Anaheim, no. No Angel home opener had ever been rained out--only 10 games have ever been rained out in Anaheim Stadium history--but when another series of showers drenched the outfield again at about 6:30, this one appeared in serious jeopardy.

Then the rain stopped at around 7:15, and, after removing the tarp, groundskeepers spent about 45 minutes sweeping large puddles of water into several outfield drainage pipes.

There were still several huge puddles in shallow center field, some standing water in patches of right field and on the warning track when the game finally started, at 8:30.

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Angels By Numbers

19-18: Record in opener through 1997

43,311: Fans at Edison Field for Angels’ home opener

1: First time the Angels have sold out a home opener

10: Rainouts at Anaheim, the last coming on June 16, 1995

56: Minutes opener was delayed because of rain and pregame festivities

10: Win streak for Angels’ Chuck Finley through ’97